Find it hard to believe that the Big Three used to pay its workers even when they weren't working? Well, how would you feel if the government was chipping in to help?
A report in today's Financial Times outlines a practice, or scheme as the FT calls it, in which the Japanese government pays as much as half of a worker's salary during plant shutdowns. Known as "employment adjustment grants", the payments are available to any company that has shown more than a 5% drop in output over the last three months.
Both Mazda and Mitsubishi have applied for the grants while Toyota says it will not apply despite a plan to cut shifts at several of its domestic factories. Nissan has applied for the grants before and may do so again according to the report.
An economic stimulus package passed in December makes it easier for Japanese companies to apply for the grants. That stands in stark contrast with the recent bailout loans provided to GM and Chrysler by the U.S. government that required elimination of the Jobs Bank, a similar arrangement in which idled workers were paid by their respective employers, as one of the requirements for approval.
billt9 says:
04:48 PM, 01/26/09
The contrast is that the Japanese system is a working, profitable system from year to year, where as the GM and Chrysler systems are broken, unprofitable every year, and something had to change.
greenpony says:
06:20 PM, 01/26/09
Isn't this called "unemployment"? You know, when you're not working, but getting some income from the government anyway?
opfreakx says:
07:48 AM, 01/27/09
UMM the big 3 still have jobs banks.